A Painting by Leonardo da Vinci Just Sold For $450 Million

In the pantheon of famous artists, there may be no name more revered than Leonardo da Vinci. Now there are cold, hard facts to back up that claim. A painting entitled “Salvator Mundi” (“Savior of the World”), which is one of just 20 paintings known to exist by the Renaissance artist, just sold for a record-shattering $450.3 million. To put that in perspective, the former auction champ was Picasso’s “Women of Algiers.” That pulled in $179.4 million in 2015. So, yeah, da Vinci’s work more than doubled the previous record holder. The sale is a win for the old masters, as tastes have definitely swung toward the contemporary in the collecting world. Some of it may have to do with the buzz around da Vinci after the release of the biography by Walter Isaacson.